The State of the Odd: September 2016

Whoo! We had quite a summer didn’t we? I set aside everything I could to try and finish out the Star Wars: The Old Republic Class Storyline Reviews and I did it! We got’em done! Yay us! I mean, Yay me! But also yay you for reading all that. It’s super cool to see the comments, return visitors, and getting linked on both the official forums and places like Reddit. It was an amazing experience and I am glad to say that I got to share it with you all. But that does leave the question: What’s next? Where can Vry go after completing his ultimate project? Well, I’m not going to be playing SWTOR for a while. Betweening burning through the last of the storyline stuff and an ending to Knights of the Fallen Empire that was both exciting and utterly disappointing in a lot of ways. I think I need a good long vacation from that game. So don’t be expecting ‘KOTFE Chapter Reviews’ or anything like that. Not that most of them are long enough to warrant one. “You save homeless people and Jorgen won’t shut up. The end.”

So what am I playing? Well, Legion for one. I’m enjoying WoW more in these past weeks than I did the last two years of Warlords of Draenor. I’m also getting back into my single player experience and diving into a bunch of Final Fantasy before Final Fantasy XV and World of Final Fantasy comes out this fall. Starting off with the one game in the series I never played: Final Fantasy IX. Oh it’ll be fun and I will probably be writing about that journey quite a bit in the days to come. Add on some new entries in the ol’ Final Fantasy retrospective. I also need to finish Type-Zero and probably go for another run through Lightning Returns and see how the New Game+ shakes down in those.

I also REALLY want to get back into making videos. REALLY Do. They were so fun to make and I haven’t been able to do one since I had Garrosh play Democracy. But with the Remastered versions of BioShock HOPEFULLY fixing some of the technical issues I was having, and more free time opening up with the whole “World Quest” system in WoW feeling way less demanding on my time, I hope to start recording more videos soon. I also have found out that in terms of making less heavily edited videos that don’t need constant cuts or fancy overlays I can actually record both voice and video directly to my Playstation 4 and upload that. So don’t be shocked if you see “Vry Plays The First Hour of World of Final Fantasy” or smaller weirder games that I have found on the console being uploaded since they take less work than stuff like the Sims or BioShock to set up/record/edit. I don’t mean to stop doing those more labor intensive videos, I just mean I can do a more steady stream of content when I have other options that aren’t so time demanding.

Finally, I would really like to take this opportunity to announce my other pet project that I’ve been hinting at and have been tinkering with for some time now but wanted to wait until it was firmly on track before saying anything about. I am – in my spare time and with no set schedule or release date – making a game. Naturally, that’s not “easy” to do, so I am using a game making engine, in this case RPG Maker MV:

“Oh no, a RPG Maker game? Those are always shit, Vry!” Well, I know there isn’t a great reputation but I want to work on one anyway. I have been compiling over 50 odd some pages of notes, charts, spreadsheets and what not for a staged release that continually expands the game world until it’s done. The first ‘phase’ will just be the starter city and a dungeon beneath it, complete with quests, a few classes, party members, and the first tier of crafting. I’m not going to make a stake and claim it will be a breakthrough in gaming or anything – I just want to make something I’M proud of. Naturally, since this is a labor of love it will be released free of charge for anyone who wants to try it out as it gets released in parts.

So that’s kind of where things are for the blog right now. I hope to make more videos, I’m gonna be talking A LOT about Final Fantasy, probably some WoW stuff, and I’m working on a little free RPG for people to try out. Hope you all stick around and join me for the fun!

What is the Land of Odd?

Long ago, in like 2007, someone told this nutjob named Vrykerion that he should try writing down all his weird rants and observations about MMOs, video games, cartoons, D&D, comics and a bunch of other geeky things. He did. This is it. Welcome to the Land of Odd.